Decision Time

Last night I continued the Basketweave Marathon for a few rows, finished the little bits of Kreinik on the overskirt of the Golden Rabbit, and started thinking about the underskirt. I'm using three main threads on this piece -- the overdyed wool Lorikeet (from Gloriana), the overdyed silk (Gloriana) and the solid silk Silk Mori (Kreinik). I did a few stitches in the Lorikeet but it looks too dark. The Silk Mori is just a bit too light and regular in color. The Gloriana overdyed silk in Old Gold is the right color, so I started stitching the pairs of long stitches in rows that make up half of the pattern. I like how it looks so I've turned my attention to what thread to use for the little short stitches that separate the long pairs. In the photo I put one of my Toho beads in the bottom row, then in the top row I used a new thread -- Silk Lame Braid (Rainbow Gallery) in SL03, which is a pale wheat, similar in color to the Silk Mori except that Silk Lame Braid has a metallic woven into the silk perle. Silk Lame Braid is described as 4 strands of silk woven with 4 strands of metallic. Note that this perle-type thread comes in two sizes--the 18 (4 strands silk+4 strands metallic) and the 13 (8 strands silk+8 strands metallic). I have the 18 count smaller size. The color card is below.

http://www.rainbowgallery.com/detail.cfm?ID=1149

I compared the look of the two and decided I preferred the Silk Lame Braid. The bead is back in the tube and this morning I'll add a bit more of the Silk Lame Braid before I continue stitching this area. As usual, I'll do a little background basketweave. If I don't, there is just too much background at the end!

Tomorrow I'll have a special treat--I'll unveil one of two totally new pet guardian angels, stitched by the designer Kandace Merric for the ANG Auction.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Finished Beaded Sleeves

Last night I got the rows of beads on the Golden Rabbit's sleeve. They look very nice! I was tempted after putting in the first row to take them all out and do something fancy (I have those diagrams for fancy stitches using beads in the Sundance Bead Book to use!) but I decided that the space was really too small to show off a mix of beads and stitches and her gown is fancy enough already. Hope you like it.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Beaded Sleeves

The Georgian Gold Rabbit got some basketweave background last night, then I started beading the inner sleeve. I tried to do the background around the sleeves to make less chance of snagging thread on the beads later. I should have waited to add the beads toward the end but I couldn't help it--I was dying to see how the color worked with the silks and wool. The beads go in the empty spaces made in skip tent but since they are size 11 beads from Toho in the color 1955-133 Hexagon Pale Copper, they probably don't need the skip tent stitches. Size 11 beads fit 13 count canvas. I prefer size 14 beads for 18 count. But the Toho beads only came in size 11 and you goes with what you got!

Note that I am stitching the beads in a backwards tent stitch \ with one ply of the same Silk Mori that couched the Lorikeet wool on her bodice and over-sleeve. That makes the beads look like the slant of the rest of the sleeve stitches which is more pleasing to my eye. I can't say it matters much but since I like that, that's usually what I do.

Tonight I'll attempt to finish beading the inner sleeve, then start back on the Background Marathon to get a bit more of that finished.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Introducing the Golden Rabbit

As you can see, I've started the last of the six pet guardian angels (designed by Kandace Merric) for the ANG Auction this fall at their Milwaukee Seminar Auction. You can see a photo of the original model on the left if you are here via the Blogspot address. We already have several beautiful rabbits in colors close to the original so I went for a monochromatic color scheme, thinking that I would use texture to make this a subtle and elegant piece.

The skirt is a bargello type stitch done in overdyed silk floss from Gloriana. The color is #169 Old Gold. The accent metallic is Kreinik's new 002V which is a mix of gold and copper. When you put this color with Kreinik's other golds, it looks copper. When you try to put it with the coppers, it looks gold! I like how the two shades are similar but there's enough color contrast for this to be interesting, instead of blah. I was afraid a regular gold wouldn't stand out enough from the gold overdye, so I think this was a good choice.

The bodice is couched Lorikeet (also from Gloriana, color Lacquered Gold this time). Lorikeet is a 9 ply wool and this color is overdyed and slightly darker than the Old Gold silk. I used a lighter gold in silk floss from Kreinik-their Silk Mori. The color is 0923. This is a faded shade from their Milk Paint color set.

The sleeve is in two parts. The outer sleeve uses the same stitch as the bodice but I changed the inner sleeve design and am stitching it in skip tent using two plies of my Silk Mori. More about that tomorrow. Right now I want to talk about the stitch on the bodice and upper sleeve. I told you it was just the Lorikeet (3 plies) couched down with the Silk Mori (2 plies) but I didn't say the original model uses diagonal mosaic slanted two different ways for the bodiee and the sleeve. Diagonal Mosaic is one of the stitches on ANG's website.
http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2000/00-07.php

I wanted to emphasize the textures of my threads, so I came up with a couched version of diagonal mosaic, that couched a line of Lorikeet with only the short stitches, then the next row in only the long stitches. This way you can see the Lorikeet under the couching lighter Silk Mori.

When you have a specific effect in mind, you can often tinker with the recommended stitch to stay in the design's ballpark, but still do what you want with the threads.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Jean Hilton Died

We got word on the ANG list today that Jean Hilton has died in her home in Arizona. She was one of the most creative and inventive designer of what we call counted thread designs today.

Thank you for everything, Jean.
http://stitches-heart.com/jeanhilton/

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow